


h__rtland ____

by orphan_account



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shun rummages through the rubble for anything bright or beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	h__rtland ____

**Author's Note:**

> I'm mostly posting this because I hate myself? Tests big fandom waters, wow you know what WOULD REALLY HIT THE SPOT RN? SOME SPECULATIVE FIC ABOUT MY FAVS FROM THAT TINY NEW YUGIOH FANDOM
> 
> Anyway I saw this [incredible art](http://hyakunana.tumblr.com/post/102467565078/i-spent-the-whole-zexal-believing-i-would-see-an) and started thinking about the fate of all our ZEXAL favs; I wanted Shun to meet Kaito (what's the plural of "bias"? is it "baes"?), but somewhere through this I considered disagreements between sanyuushi on how to handle a hypothetical Fusion/Synchro invasion, and I think that Kaito would be the first to use the weapon of the enemy against them, whether it makes him look like a traitor or not. Haruto knows his brother, but that's not a path he can follow.
> 
> Buuuuut I'm rambling.
> 
> Please do leave comments! I'd love to hear your theories (and would love an excuse to expand on mine, haha).

Shun rummages through the rubble for anything bright or beautiful. Today is Ruri’s birthday, and she probably forgot the same way he did, but Yuuto didn’t—he’s good with dates and appointments and calculation—and he nudged Shun earlier while Ruri went to find something to eat, like, “So, what did you get her?”

“What?” Shun asked then, and Yuuto expanded, face hardening, “Birthday?”

“Oh,” said Shun with dull surprise, because birthdays don’t seem all that important when the entire world is decayed and dusted around you, when everyday is a fight for your life, when your little sister spends more time destroying the enemy with her killer new deck than clacking together her killer new heels—though Ruri’ll always find time for both. Yuuto shook his head and was about to say something but Ruri’d just come back, so he fell silent. Shun just kind of watched her, remembered her smaller form against the bluer sky, and felt kind of like a shit brother for thinking that the end of the world excused him from anything. 

Yuuto’d asked _what_ he got, not if he did.

“I’ll be right back,” he muttered to Yuuto, who smirked and said, “I’ll keep her busy.”

Now he’s at the junkyard—the heart of the city, literally—going through the trash and the rocks for something shiny, scavenging like he’s an overgrown crow (Ruri would laugh at that, he’ll have to save it for later). It’s always easy to find something different around here, something small, something meaninglessly meaningful, like toys or clothes or jewelry. It used to be an amusement park; he remembers coming here when he was smaller, when the sky was brighter at night than it is during the day and the air smelled like popcorn and cotton candy, and every one’s wrist had a heart balloon tied to it, when wearing your heart on your sleeve wasn’t something to worry about all that much.

Most things have lost their sheen. The dirt is nothing a little water can’t clean up, but they’re still old and lost and filled with untappable memories, laughter and hands and families that Shun doesn’t know and won’t, but here’s something left of them. Shun finds a scarf that’s greased with oil from a cart nearby and a teddy bear with half its face ripped and an old set of cards that he pockets for safe keeping; he finds a mountain of heart-shaped earrings and an upturned dumpster littered with kitten toys and, in the center of the damage zone, right next to the city’s dead heart, Shun finds a litterbot.

It’s not rare to see them or anything; it’s just… disheartening, because they’re a reminder of betrayals and curbstomped battles at the center of Heartland City. The litterbots were at the forefront of tons of clashes; Shun remembers the day they were systematically crushed like cheap gazers and thrown back as projectiles to demolish the remnants of the park. It was the day Tenjou Kaito went synchro and Shun couldn’t find Ruri for the better part of an hour, thought she was missing or turncoat or dead.

It’s not a day Shun likes to think about. He flips his scarf and turns around, ready to look elsewhere.

_Beep beep._

Shun jumps back around with wild eyes, duel disk at the ready. “Who’s there?!”

_Beep beep, beep beep._

He squints and inches closer to the heart he turned his back to, his senses heightened, keenly aware of the sounds around him, the wind blowing tattered flags and plastic bags, and there shouldn’t be anyone else around here…

_Beep beep!_

Wait… Is that…? 

“Oru! Oru!” 

A human voice?! Wh—Where are all these sounds coming from? Shun ducks behind a column of junk and sets his deck in place, eyes trailed carefully to the source of the sound, where he hears someone approaching—and, and sees someone, too, a tall guy with a mop of blue hair and something grey strapped to his back, and he looks—he looks familiar, Shun doesn’t recognize him, but somehow he knows he’s on the right side. 

Still…

“Oru!” There’s a sigh and the man takes whatever it is off his back, sets it on the ground. It shifts, growing from a tiny pack into a litterbot itself, a squiggle on its forehead like a curl of hair. “Bomi,” he says anxiously, “can’t you scan for her?”

The bot—Bomi—does, and Shun watches as it points to the litterbot from before, casually rolls up to it and sets to fidgeting with the buttons as the man laughs and pumps his fist, “Alright!” In moments Oru’s lights blink back and she stumbles back up, fully functioning. The bots exchange beeps and whirs and some words and there’s a little dance, too, the man with the light blue hair—he’s gotta be a teenager, only a few years older than Shun himself—joining them with a heartier laugh, something soft and genuine and totally alien, because how can someone be so… so _happy_ , standing in this rubble?

“Haruto-sama,” one of the bots—Oru?—chirps. “Life.” It raises its arm and points directly at Shun.

He—Haruto—tilts his head, mouth slightly open in unbelieving surprise at the prospect; Shun realizes too late that he’s being looked at and ducks, tries to sneak away and disappear as fast as he can from this weird guy and his weird robots, but—

“Hey, is someone there?” 

—It’s too late.

His duel disk set, Shun slowly rises. He doesn’t say anything, just narrows his eyes to look intimidating; that might as well be the usual greeting around here. But Haruto doesn’t seem to realize that either, because when he sees Shun he just smiles, right and proper, something strong, something intimidating.

Why can’t Shun remember who he _is_?

“Hey,” says Haruto, “you’re not lost, are you?”

Shun says, “No.”

“Then what’re you doing here?” He draws closer. Oru and Bomi follow. “It’s dangerous in the central city, you know?”

 _It’s none of your business_ , Shun wants to say, but ends up with, “Looking.”

Haruto’s brow shoots up and his entire face brightens, like Looking is the name of his favorite game. “For what?”

“A present,” his lips slip out without asking him, and before he can arrest them: “For my little sister.”

Haruto’s eyes grow wide and barely above a whisper, he mouths “Little… sister,” like it’s something he’s only ever heard of in stories and can’t believe it’s real, and it’s ridiculous, how much this guy’s face can light up, but it does again as Haruto suddenly goes to fidgeting in his pockets, finds something and grins victoriously, pulls it out in a fist.

“Here,” he says, stretching out his hand and looking at Shun expectantly until Shun opens his palm. Out of Haruto's grip falls a tiny, square piece of candy, and Haruto proclaims proudly, “Please give her this! It has a magical property, did you know?”

Shun hasn’t seen candy in months. It feels like he forgot it ever existed. He accepts the token silently, nods his assent.

When he looks up again, Haruto’s a fair distance away, waving, Oru and Bomi mimicking the action.

He doesn’t close his fist, just stares at his palm and tilts his head, _a magical property_ , Someone Haruto, the broken heart in the center of the city.

Shun turns around and heads home.


End file.
